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NZ SOCIETY OF SOIL SCIENCE CONFERENCE

"DIVERSE SOILS - PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES"

3 - 6 December 2018

Napier

Keynote Speakers

Annabel Langbein

Kiwi cook Annabel Langbein has made it her mission to inspire and empower us all to eat more seasonal produce and fewer barcodes. Wellington-born Annabel learned to cook from her home economist mother, then left home at 17 to live off the land, cooking over an open fire, trapping possums and jumping out of helicopters to recover live deer. She studied horticulture at Lincoln University and travelled widely before turning to food writing as a career. She has written and self-published 27 cookbooks and co-produced and presented three series of her television show The Free Range Cook. Today she grows most of her family’s food in extensive gardens on the shores of Lake Wanaka. She is a foundation member of the Sustainability Council of New Zealand, has an honorary doctorate in Commerce from Lincoln University and was named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to food writing in the 2018 Queens Birthday Honours List.

Dr. Brent Clothier

Brent Clothier is a Principal Scientist with Plant & Food Research. He is based in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Brent has a BSc (Hons) from Canterbury University and a PhD and DSc from Massey University. Brent is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Society of Soil Science. As well, Brent is a Fellow of three foreign science academies: the Soil Science Society of America, the American Agronomy Society, and the American Geophysical Union. Brent was awarded the Don & Betty Kirkham Soil Physics Award of the Soil Science Society of America in 2000. He was awarded the J.A Prescott Medal by Soil Science Australia in 2001, and the L.I. Grange Medal by the New Zealand Society of Soil Science in 2014.

Brent has published many scientific papers on the movement and fate of water, carbon and chemicals in the root-zones of primary production systems, irrigation allocation and water management, plus sustainable vineyard and orchard practices, including adaptation strategies in the face of climate change. He also published on life-cycle assessment, carbon and water footprinting, environmental policy, investment into ecological infrastructure, plus natural capital quantification and the valuation of ecosystem services. Brent is Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Agricultural Water Management.

Brent has been, or is still involved in water-related aid and development projects in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as in the Middle East and Africa.

First agricultural role: I was appointed as the penultimate District Agricultural Scientist for what was formerly the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Agricultural Research Division, based in Taranaki. The work included looking into soil fertility and agronomy related issues in both dairying and Taranaki hill country sheep and beef farms. As a raw graduate in those early years I learned more from the crusty and grizzled farmers I worked with than they did from me – now the worm has turned and I am the crusty and grizzled scientist giving back to keen young farmers! Taranaki was also where my illustrious 12-year non-professional rugby league career as a hooker came to an end. Many people were bemused as to why I played this game, akin to constantly running into a brick wall, but this just proves that you don’t need to be smart to earn a Ph D!

Current role: Currently my many faceted roles involve managing the agronomic research and development projects which are let to a range of research providers including Massey and Lincoln Universities, AgResearch and Plant and Food and assisting in a technical capacity the work which the Fertiliser Association of New Zealand undertakes. I also train the approximately 70 field staff (who deal on a daily basis with our shareholders) and any interested company staff in soils and agronomy. I derive sadistic delight from the setting of tests, both for internal and externally delivered training courses, and the angst this causes the participants. I work with our field team on shareholders’ properties where we believe we can add value to their business through the best use of our products and services and finally I joyously spend a considerable amount of time representing both scientific and farmer interests in resource management hearings and in our dealings with regional councils and industry groups.

Goals: When I was 8 I wanted to work for FAO and feed the starving millions of the world, hence why I was interested in agriculture. Given that pestilence, conflagration and genocide have failed to keep the world population under control such that the starving millions have morphed into starving billions, my more humble goal revolves around helping New Zealand farmers, and especially our shareholders, to understand how to best manage their soils and especially their soil fertility, to optimise the productivity of their farming businesses.

Why agriculture: Why not agriculture? – it is the driving force of this nation’s economy, and as such it is important for every person living in New Zealand. I enjoy working with the down to earth and pragmatic stewards of the land. Besides, I have somewhat latterly worked out that the biggest reservoir of feral deer and pigs is accessible on our shareholders farms and I often try and wheedle my way into an invitation to hunt on their properties!

Mark Shepherd

Mark Shepherd’s specialist research area is nutrient management in agricultural systems. He is Leader of AgResearch’s ‘Digital Agriculture’ research programme. This investigates how new and emerging technologies can support farm systems science in developing solutions that help farms achieve (and be able to demonstrate) sustainable food production systems. Other recent projects include: National technical leader for the Pastoral 21 Research Programme, a highly collaborative programme focusing on mitigating N leaching; Project Leader, delivering research for MPI in support of the Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Programme. He has over 30 years of research, development and extension experience, and a good grounding in the issues, and legislation, relating to agri-environmental interactions, in the Europe and New Zealand. I have considerable experience and track record in managing and running complex, multi-partner projects for a range of national and international funders. Awards include: Joint winner of AgResearch’s inaugural Technology Prize in recognition of contribution to Overseer development, a nutrient budgeting model (2013); New Zealand Soil Science Society’s M.L. Leamy Award for the most meritorious contribution to soil science published in the last three years (2016); and Kudos Science Team award for the Pastoral 21 Farm Systems Research (2017).

Simon Upton

Simon Upton was sworn in as Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment for a five-year term on the 16th of October 2017.

Mr Upton is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a Rhodes Scholar, with degrees in English literature, music and law from the University of Auckland, and an MLitt in political philosophy from Oxford University. He was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council in 1999.

A Member of Parliament between 1981 and 2000, Mr Upton held a variety of Ministerial portfolios including Environment, Research, Biosecurity, Health and State Services between 1990 and 1999.

After leaving Parliament, Mr Upton moved to Paris to chair the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In 2005, he returned to New Zealand to pursue a number of private sector roles while continuing to chair the Round Table.

In April 2010 he returned to the OECD full-time as Environment Director, a post he held for seven years until returning to take up the role of Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

Andrew Waterhouse

Andrew L. Waterhouse is a third generation Californian, but moved frequently while growing up, including some years abroad, living in Thailand, Ghana and Iran before attending university. He received his bachelor's in chemistry from the University of Notre Dame in 1977. Having completed his Ph.D. and a postdoctoral research appointment at UC Berkeley, he joined the chemistry department at Tulane University in 1986.

In 1991, he moved to the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis where his research program has delved into various aspects of phenolics. These naturally occurring compounds, present in grape skins and seeds and extracted from oak barrels, account for several aspects of flavor and bouquet, as well as antioxidant activity, which helps wines age and may reduce chronic disease in wine drinkers. Current studies focus on several aspects of wine oxidation chemistry, closure performance and the absorption and metabolism of proanthocyanidins. His graduate students and post-docs are winemakers, researchers and professors across California and elsewhere around the globe.

He is a Professor of Enology and has previously held the John E. Kinsella Chair in Food, Nutrition and Health, and the Marvin Sands Endowed Chair. He has won the Medical Friends of Wine Research Award, a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow award, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bordeaux, and he has been named one of the most highly cited researchers in agriculture by ISI. He teaches a course on the chemical analysis of wine, as well as a graduate course entitled “Natural Products of Wine.” He also has an appointment at the University of Auckland as Honorary Professor.

In addition to his research and teaching, Professor Waterhouse is the Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, and has chaired numerous national and international symposia and participates in such professional organizations as the American Society for Enology and Viticulture and the American Chemical Society. At UC Davis he has served as Chair of the Department of Viticulture and Enology, Chair of Graduate Council and in other roles

Plenary Speakers

Dr Estelle Dominati

Dr Estelle Dominati is originally from France. She has a Master’s degree in Agronomy and sustainable agriculture from SupAgro in Montpellier (France, 2006). She completed her Ph.D. in Ecological Economics with Massey University in Palmerston North and AgResearch in 2012 on valuing soil natural capital.

She has been working for AgResearch since May 2011 as a research scientist.

Her early research addressed the addition of a soil/land component to natural capital and ecosystem services frameworks as well as economic valuation of ecosystems services from agro-ecosystems.

More recently, her research has been focusing on taking an ecosystems approach to resource management and the sustainability of agro-ecosystems and more specifically on using ecosystem-based management to look at whole farm system analysis and optimisation within environmental and cultural boundaries.

In the last 3 years, she has been working closely with Māori agri-businesses on the alignment of Mātauranga Māori and the ecosystems approach to look at holistic farm planning.

Greg Hart

Greg Hart grew up on a family farm near Methven, Mid-Canterbury. After gaining a Bachelor of Agriculture from Massey University and working in the agriculture industry, he and his wife Rachel worked in partnership with Greg’s parents to develop Mangarara Station in Hawke’s Bay. After the birth of their first child, Greg and Rachel began thinking about the world they would leave their children. Greg is now committed to being part of the positive change taking place in the world to bring us back within the boundaries nature sets for us. He is transitioning the traditional sheep and cattle station to a farm of the future that creates balance by developing diverse, integrated, regenerative farming systems, restoring ecosystems through tree planting, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and building healthy soil using holistic grazing techniques as a solution to climate change, and opening the farm to the public to enable others to reconnect to the earth that sustains us. The ethos for the farm is “Optimising Life”

Jonno Rau

Jonno is a pedologist with Landcare Research/Manaaki Whenua based in Hamilton, New Zealand.

After traveling the globe working as a rafting guide in locations including Japan, Norway and Switzerland I returned to New Zealand and found work in the film industry working on films including The Hobbit. Jonno has completed a BSc and will soon complete a MSc from the University of Waikato.

My Masters project evaluated the soil, climate and topography of the Wairoa District to identify potential opportunities for horticultural development. The climate was characterised by creating local scale chilling hour, growing degree day and spring frost risk climate maps which were used to help evaluate potential land use change. In addition, representative soils were sampled to determine their soil moisture retention capacity. The soil water holding capacity data with 10yrs of daily rainfall and evapotranspiration were then used within a soil water balance model to estimate seasonal irrigation quantities for a range of crops.

When not working with Landcare Research/Manaaki Whenua Jonno can be found rock-climbing or kayaking.

Sam Robinson

​Mr Sam Robinson is a hill country farmer from Central Hawke’s Bay. Sam brings strong governance experience in New Zealand agribusiness and extensive red meat industry expertise to Silver Fern Farms. He is currently an independent director of NZ Young Farmers and is the past Chairman of AgResearch and Richmond Ltd, as well as a past director Port of Napier, Farmlands, AgMardt and AsureQuality.

Blair Waipara

Blair is the Land Development Manager for Te Tumu Paeroa. He manages a team of professionals who are passionate and focused on working with Maori land owners to develop and improve existing land-based businesses. He manages a portfolio of high performing primary industry businesses including the 2014 Ahuwhenua Maori Dairy Farm of the Year and the award-winning Hamama Kiwifruit Orchard in the Bay of Plenty. His team also has a strong focus on new enterprise development having direct experience in working with land owners to build new agricultural and horticultural businesses across a range of industries. The team is currently leading a major multi-million dollar kiwifruit orchard development programme in the Bay of Plenty which is looking to develop 10 orchards in the next 24 months. Blair is of Rongowhakaata descent.